By Adeola Badru – Ibadan
The sacked local government chairmen in Oyo State by Governor Seyi Makinde under the umbrella of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) have urged the South-West governors to subject the operation of the recently launched security outfit codenamed: ‘Operation Amotekun’ to democratic control.
They made this observation while speaking at a get together held to appreciate journalists in the state.
At the event were correspondents and reporters of various media houses in the state.
Also, in attendance were the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman in the state, Chief Akin Oke; Minority leader of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Asimiyu Alarape; ALGON members and former Commissioner for Finance in the state, Mr Bimbo Adekanbi.
ALGON Chairman, Prince Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye while reacting to the launch of Western Nigeria Security Network, “Operation Amotekun” by the South-West governors, appealed to them to subject the severity outfit to democratic control and not to be abused and misused.
In his words: “Let me state here that ALGON Oyo State supports Amotekun as we have been doing to create and support any move to address meaningfully the security of life and property as this is the fundamental objective and duty of government at all levels because without security there cannot be governance or development.”
“We, however, wish to appeal to Southwest governors to subject the operation of Amotekun to democratic control and management of communities and local government authorities as elected representatives of the grassroots for Amotekun not to be abused and misused.”
He urged the governors to look at all genuine complaints and suggestions to make Amotekun generally acceptable in order to achieve its set goals of providing complementary security to all and sundry.
“The governors should also look at all genuine complaints and suggestions to make Amotekun generally acceptable so as to achieve its set goal of providing complementary security to all.”
“ALGON Oyo State will soon set up a technical committee to study the situation and make recommendations to the governors on it. Once again, we wish you bountiful success and great accomplishments in the new year.”
“We want to thank you all for your attention and support for the cause of Justice. We are hopeful that together, we shall fight this illegality to the logical conclusion.”
“Just before we get started, I will like to on behalf of myself and other members of ALGON express our profound gratitude to all of you who have been with us through thick and thin in our political struggle for democracy and emancipation, most essentially, members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm, the Press. We commend many of you including the on-line media for your sense of fairness in reporting the issues as they developed.”
“Importantly, we consider this gathering imperative purposely to appreciate the good efforts of everybody who are democracy lovers and to appraise our activities in the year 2019, all in a legitimate bid to reclaim our mandate and also to tell you what we do to defend the rule of law we all sworn to uphold as it is enshrined in the constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, as far as the issue of Local Government Administration is concerned.”
“I will like to briefly summarize what has transpired in the last couple of months when power in the State changed hands and how it affects our legally occupied offices as Local Government Chairmen and Councillors.”
“You will recall that shortly after the inauguration of Engr. Seyi Makinde as the governor of Oyo State on the 29th May, 2019, he announced through his then yet to be sworn-in Chief of Staff then, Chief Bisi Ilaka the dissolution of the democratically elected Local Government Councils and Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs.”
“It will be recalled that we came into office through elections which were conducted during the regime of Senator Abiola Ajimobi.”
“By Chief Ilaka’s illegal declaration, we were directed to handover to our respective Heads of Local Government Administration, HLAs or the most senior Directors in our Local Government Areas and Councils.
The order which we never and we will never comply with because it was illegal and unconstitutional,” he added.
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